The use of representational figures, such as human dolls, stuffed animals, and the like, as tools for communicating with children, and in particular as vehicles through which the child can express his or her feelings is known.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,927, issued Mar. 4, 1986 discloses a doll which is to be employed in therapeutic settings when working with children who are experiencing emotional and/or learning problems. The doll-like figure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,927 includes four facial panels which the child can attach to the rest of the figure to express a feeling which he or she may not be able to, or wish to, readily verbalize.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,470, issued Feb. 24, 1987, relates to a doll particularly developed for the entertainment of children, the doll having a receptacle formed as a part thereof. The child creates written communications which are then inserted into the receptacle and thus entrusted to the custody and care of the doll.
Of course, a wide variety of stuffed animals exist in the prior art, including animals which essentially operate as hand puppets whereby a child can manipulate the puppet-like figures for both entertainment and other purposes. Representative of such devices are those shown in French Patent No. 1,268,636, issued to Lang, and U.S. Pat. No. 1,417,860, issued May 30, 1922 to Reich.
As will be seen below, the apparatus of the present invention differs significantly from the structure disclosed in the aforesaid patents. One difference is incorporation in the representational figure of the present invention of a receptacle into which one or more objects may be placed by a child as part of the overall method of this invention. U.S. Pat. No. 2,623,303, issued Dec. 30, 1952, discloses an educational toy wherein a plurality of different shaped objects are inserted into a box-like receptacle having different apertures corresponding to the different geometrical pieces or blocks manipulated by the child.